Man stabbed, shoved in duffle bag and set on fire

Officials say three roommates were arrested in the stabbing of a Robert Brewre, whose burning body was found in a trash bin.

David Link

Kasey Ackerman has been sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty to the 2010 murder of Robert Brewer in Brandon.

Brendan Terry

Brandon, Florida - The apartment known for late parties and noise was always a pain for neighbors at Brandon Manor.

The residents inside Apartment 201 would stay up late, play their music loudly and ignore the pleas from neighbors. They constantly asked the men to be quiet. So, early Tuesday morning around 2:00, when people heard thumping and yelling, they didn't think anything strange was going on inside.

They were wrong.

On Monday, three men - the alleged ringleader Kasey Ackerman, Brendan Terry and David Link - were at Brandon Westfield Mall when they met a 27-year-old man who sources say was looking to buy pot. He called himself "Ron" and quickly made friends with the three men.

Detectives have now identified the victim as 26-year-old Robert Mason Brewer, whose last known address is in Valrico.

They invited Brewer back to their apartment. He had no way of knowing he would be tortured and murdered hours later.

A witness who claims he was inside the apartment at the time, tells us the men were chopping up Xanax and Roxycodone pills and snorting them. They were also drinking, he says, and smoking marijuana. Also inside the apartment was Ackerman's girlfriend and her 3-year-old little boy.

The eyewitness says that after Ackerman got high, he became increasingly agitated and thought that Brewer was hitting on his girlfriend. Ackerman reportedly waited until Brewer passed out on a recliner and several men took his body into the bedroom.

Moments later, the eyewitness say Ackerman emerged from the kitchen with several carving knives and headed to the bedroom where Brewer was sleeping. After a few minutes, he came out. The witness says Ackerman began yelling.

"He comes running out [and says] 'I got him. I got him, I got him I got him.' He said, 'I stabbed him.' I said, 'Where'd you stab him?' 'I went like this to his neck.' "

But, that wasn't the end of the torture. Another man went in a few minutes later and reportedly stabbed Brewer "in the gut," says the witness.

Brewer lay in the recliner bleeding profusely on the fabric and the carpet. The witness says Ackerman told his friends to get Brewer into the bathroom so "he could bleed out in the bathtub." At the time, Brewer was still alive and stumbled into the bathroom, the witness says, and collapsed. The men told him to strip. Brewer clumsily took his clothes off and lay naked.

The witness says that Ackerman ordered them to get some plastic, so they could put Brewer's body on top of it because he was bleeding so badly. They complied and the men wrapped up the body. Brewer was still alive, the eyewitness says, but lay lifeless during the ordeal.

The interior of Apartment 201 was now covered in blood. Ackerman then told his friends to grab Brewer's duffle bag.

The witness says the men took Brewer's body, folded it in half and shoved it inside. The eyewitness says he was threatened by Ackerman that he would be killed if he didn't help take the body out to a dumpster using a dolly.

"He said he'd kill me, so what could I do? I had to help," the witness told us.

The men wheeled Brewer's body out to the dumpster and tossed it over the edge, hearing a thump when it landed.

What they didn't expect to hear was Brewer screaming inside. Ignoring his cries, they then drenched the bag with lighter fluid and lit a match, sources say.

"He was screaming for his life, screaming his head off," the witness tells us. Ron would die inside the dumpster. Firefighters were called out, but it was too late.

Less than a day later, Kasey Ackerman, Brendan Terry and David Link were all arrested on murder charges.

One mother at the complex was shocked when she heard the details, "It's insane. My son used to play with their little boy. I mean, it's insane, it's crazy... when we get our tax return, we're moving out of here."

Another resident, Ricardo Garcia, heard the noise that night but didn't think anything of it. After all, these neighbors were always noisy.

"I'm shocked, still shocked that this happened upstairs."

Iyonais Maimellis tells us, "Everybody is surprised. I mean, we knew they were party animals, every night up 'til all hours, but murder? I couldn't believe that."